Oscar Banquets

Oscar night looms. Commentators are dusting off their pre-show red-carpet patter, craftsmen are fashioning gold-plated statuettes, Price Waterhouse officials are counting ballots in secret sessions, and Hollywood is preparing to dazzle its colleagues and the general public with its annual orgy of self-congratulation.

Today Wolfgang Puck and his minions are working on the food for the Governor’s Ball. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, this year’s menu will feature my favorite edible for ANY occasion—lots and lots of finger food, served buffet style. I would LOVE to taste Puck’s lobster tacos, not to mention the gold-dusted chocolate Oscars now being fashioned.

The first Academy-Awards banquet was less elaborate than the one planned for tomorrow evening. Held in Hollywood’s Roosevelt Hotel in May of 1929, it fed about 270 people instead of the 1500-odd nominees, presenters, and guests expected this year.

The overall ambiance, according to later recollections, was one of a small community celebration. First best-actress winner Janet Gaynor said decades after the fact, “It was just a small group getting together for a pat on the back…. Hollywood was just one big family then, and [the award] was a bouquet—thrown to me, I think, because I was new and because they thought I had certain freshness. It was nothing then like it is now.”

Janet Gaynor in "Sunrise," one of the three films for which she won the best-actress trophy in 1929.

The food was less sophisticated than that being planned for this year. Hollywood and the American public were a little simpler then. I think it sounds pretty tasty, however.

According to the official Awards Librarian at the Academy, the menu consisted of:

I love sole—and so, apparently, did diners in Hollywood in 1929. This is my favorite way to pan fry this fish in butter. If you want to make the fillets look more beautiful, dredge them in flour before cooking them.

I haven’t made this recipe lately so I don’t have a photo to share with you. But I do remember that it was delicious.

Ingredients:

1 small juice glass almost filled with sprigs of parsley
about 1/4 cup clarified butter
1-1/2 pounds sole fillets
salt and white pepper to taste
the juice of 1/2 large lemon

Instructions:

With kitchen scissors cut the parsley into small pieces in the glass. In a large frying pan, melt about half of the butter over medium heat. Put in a few sole fillets; they should not touch each other.

Fry the fillets gently for a minute or two on each side, until they become flaky, adding salt and pepper as you cook. As each fillet is done, place it on a platter in a 250-degree oven so that it stays warm until its relatives have finished cooking. Add butter to the pan as needed for sautéing.

When the fillets are all cooked and on the platter, throw the parsley and lemon juice into the frying pan, and stir to allow them to mingle with the pan drippings. Ladle the parsley-lemon-butter mixture onto the fish fillets, and serve.

Serves 4.

This postcard of the Roosevelt Hotel, currently for sale on ebay, was postmarked in 1929.

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BTW, Tinky Weisblat, in case I’ve never mentioned it, I want to thank you for being the movie maven (with Kelly) of our class. I know that you exposed me/us to a ton of classic films. It’s kind of funny how the one claim for movies I have i…s that the theatre in my hometown closed out its existence (it got torn down right after it closed and no movie house replaced it to this day) showing a first run movie titled The Last Picture Show, ironic (and likely intended) as hell. And what a classic movie that turned out to be.

I think both of your evenings sound great. (I would never have thought of the cherry pie filling, Margie.) And Nicki, we LOVED being the mavens, as you know. What a shame about your theater; I still have trouble going into multiplexes (although I do go into them).

I didn’t watch the Oscars (I seldom do anymore). What was I watching? Rerun of Downtown Abbey? I can’t recall. As a child, though, I love the Oscars with the likes of Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hephurn, Katharine Hephurn, Spencer Tracy…well you get the picture. Anyway, I love the simple sole recipe. This is how I would like most delicate fish prepared. Sauteed in a bit of good butter and a fragrant but not too overpowering herb thrown in at the end. Bravo, Tinky. Take ‘yer bow!